(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A top Democrat aiming to become North Carolina’s attorney general is under fire after being caught red-handed in a cozy embrace with a registered sex offender. His opponent quickly called out his poor judgment in a hard-hitting campaign ad.
Meet Democrat Rep. Jeff Jackson, seen in a 2022 video accepting an LGBTQ award from Chad Turner, a registered sex offender and the head of the Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
In 1998, Turner (then 19) was busted after committing three lewd acts on a child under the age of 16. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but released after two years.
The 2022 video, which resurfaced by the Daily Wire on Oct. 10, 2024, showed Jackson praising Turner’s leadership as a gay activist, despite Turner’s conviction for sex crimes.
Jackson, a close ally of Kamala Harris, is set to face Republican Rep. Dan Bishop in the November election for the Old North State’s top law enforcement job. This race is one of the most closely watched.
Vice President Harris is the former prosecutor we need to make the case to our country about the stark choice we face in this election.
I’m proud to support her to be our nominee, and I look forward to campaigning with her in North Carolina.
— Rep. Jeff Jackson (@JeffJacksonNC) July 22, 2024
Bishop launched an ad featuring several women criticizing Jackson’s connection to Turner despite his criminal record.
“Child molester Chad Turner became one of Charlotte’s most notorious sex offenders. A few years later, Jeff Jackson accepted an award from him, and embraced Chad Turner,” the ad’s narrator stated, as footage from the Daily Wire showed Jackson and Turner together.
“This is wrong,” one woman said, seemingly reacting to the footage of Jackson embracing the sex offender.
“It’s awful,” another woman added, later stating, “How can a mom of any child trust Jeff Jackson.”
“Everyone knew about this guy,” the first woman emphasized.
“I voted for Democrats before, I can’t vote for Jeff Jackson,” a woman concluded the ad.
According to a Headline USA review of Turner’s sex offender registry, his conviction occurred on July 17, 1998, with his release following on Aug. 23, 2002.
In 2016, Turner temporarily stepped down as president of the Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce after his past sex crime resurfaced.
It isn’t immediately clear when Turner returned to this position, as his LinkedIn showed that he worked for the chamber intermittently from 2013 to 2020.
“What I didn’t want to do was allow the right to continue to detract and to continue throwing stones at an organization that has done absolutely nothing but help individuals and our community in our city,” Turner told Qnotes Carolinas, an LGBT news outlet, in 2016.
Democrat nominee for North Carolina AG, @JeffJacksonNC has a new ad out. 8 reasons to vote for him. #8 he is "basically a normal person". No Mr. Jackson, normal North Carolinians do not praise child molesters and tell them how grateful they are for them. @againstgrmrs pic.twitter.com/NAMJXlZOI3
— Gays Against Groomers North Carolina (@GAG_NCarolina) October 18, 2024
